Showing posts with label Logistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Logistics. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
CONCEPT: Just-In-Time
Just-in-Time (JIT): Almost inextricably associated with Japanese manufacturing and transportation industries, the JIT principle is a crucially important component of savvy logistics management in war and peace -- and during all sorts of emergencies and disasters. The underlying idea is to reduce to near zero the temporal and financial costs of warehousing or storing of supplies, components or finished goods -- and of getting them to the intended recipients or users.
JIT relies massively on the soundness of established transportation routes, modes and means -- and related systems. Moreover, the forms of social overhead capital (SOC) ideal for specific large-scale deliveries and other kinds of response are usually beyond the control of those directly involved in sending and receiving goods and/or services. It is for such reasons that Government Service Packages (GSPs), for example, have been set up. They mitigate barriers to the timely delivery of humanitarian services during extremely large emergencies -- such as we saw during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and, a decade later on 26th December 2004, the "Indian Ocean Rim" Tsunami.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
CONCEPT: Logistics
Logistics: This is the art and science of moving, transporting and/or delivering things (material, hardware, equipment or supplies), services or even people across geographical space. Crucial considerations here include: efficiency, coordination, timeliness, security and cost; or, in general, the appropriateness of the means in relation to the mission. Vehicular breakdown and safety of passage are, likewise, always a twin-concern requiring management's 'unblinking' attention and capacity for effective response and even 'networked' intervention.
To have good logistics, you must in the first place have clarity of purpose and a good strategy to realize it. Otherwise, whatever carriers and other transportation resources, routes, personnel or passion and related communication mechanisms that you may have will be of little avail. Thus, the adage that "if you don't know where you're going, you won't get there" tells us less than half the truth. You must have the means (of necessity dependable) to get there, as well. As a minimum, then, strategy should be based on a robust form of SWOT analysis or its equivalent. In, a robust and pro-active 'supply chain management' system is a necessity for consistent success.
Partly driven by considerations of security (against international terrorism, in particular, as well as piracy) and of efficiency, logistics and IoT have increasingly become intertwined in 'heavy-duty' commercial shipping around the world. In hindsight, one can see that IoT was always implicit in both commercial (for example, in the worldwide cargo-delivery 'transactions' of FedEx and DHL) and humanitarian airfreight (for example in UNHCR and Red Cross operations). It was even there, in its 'infancy', in passenger air-travel -- and most pronounced in long-haul flight.
But there has been, through it all, a periodically morphing sort of reverse 'cultural lag' (see, also, Godin) here -- between a 'driving' adaptive culture (that is, growing safety and security concerns and needs) and a 'responding' material culture (for example, as alluded to already, the technologies required to give assurance of passenger and shipping-line security). Quaintly, the intuitive tail was wagging the material dog here. With recent advances, however, IoT's value-proposition has caught up with the need (the demand) for it. This proposition has indeed become more and more explicit and even routine in its effect.
To have good logistics, you must in the first place have clarity of purpose and a good strategy to realize it. Otherwise, whatever carriers and other transportation resources, routes, personnel or passion and related communication mechanisms that you may have will be of little avail. Thus, the adage that "if you don't know where you're going, you won't get there" tells us less than half the truth. You must have the means (of necessity dependable) to get there, as well. As a minimum, then, strategy should be based on a robust form of SWOT analysis or its equivalent. In, a robust and pro-active 'supply chain management' system is a necessity for consistent success.
Partly driven by considerations of security (against international terrorism, in particular, as well as piracy) and of efficiency, logistics and IoT have increasingly become intertwined in 'heavy-duty' commercial shipping around the world. In hindsight, one can see that IoT was always implicit in both commercial (for example, in the worldwide cargo-delivery 'transactions' of FedEx and DHL) and humanitarian airfreight (for example in UNHCR and Red Cross operations). It was even there, in its 'infancy', in passenger air-travel -- and most pronounced in long-haul flight.
But there has been, through it all, a periodically morphing sort of reverse 'cultural lag' (see, also, Godin) here -- between a 'driving' adaptive culture (that is, growing safety and security concerns and needs) and a 'responding' material culture (for example, as alluded to already, the technologies required to give assurance of passenger and shipping-line security). Quaintly, the intuitive tail was wagging the material dog here. With recent advances, however, IoT's value-proposition has caught up with the need (the demand) for it. This proposition has indeed become more and more explicit and even routine in its effect.
Monday, March 12, 2018
CONCEPT: Famine
Famine: This refers to widespread and systemic hunger, or more particularly starvation, that arises from acute and persisting food shortages in an area or a population. It is "the most severe and visible form of hunger" (Barbour and Dudley, 1995: 12). The main causes of famine have historically been such natural factors as drought, floods and related crop failures. However, as the two authors and others have argued, famine, wherever it occurs, has more recently become, primarily, a human-caused emergency or disaster due to poor or inefficient distribution by governments, or "intentional starvation" by warlords (Barbour and Dudley, 1995: 12-13) -- or members of the "political class".
Clearly, the problem does not lie simply in poor distribution modalities (and the weak logistical infrastructure that helps to explain them) and deliberate (or neglectful) starvation, but also and perhaps more directly in the incompetence and lack of foresight by those assigned the tasks. Foresight here includes the financially and administratively complicated, and confounding, idea of strategic [food] reserves.
As we see under the concept of Entitlement, Sen strongly suggests that entitlement is a crucial factor in shielding some from famine, while exposing others (those without adequate amounts of it) to famine's (or starvation's) full effects. That is, those with inadequate entitlement to food, which is always in principle available from a wide array of local and global sources. The global community is not, certainly not yet, short of food.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
On Drones: Tweets and Retweets
- @TheEconomist To suggest that the West has tough(er) regulations on drones due 2 mo congested airspaces is 2 simplify & distort the facts
- @TheEconomist See what I wrote about drones>> http://bit.ly/1AgrZ3x . Even the #WhiteHouse is lately jittery about drones flying everywhere
- @TheEconomist Kenya shd never surrender the operation of any drones to UNHCR, given our experience with their management of #Dadaab
- A playwright turns drones into drama http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-24/playwright-turns-drones-drama …
- Drones Are Now Appearing on Afghan Rugs http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/drones-are-appearing-on-afghan-rugs/385025/ …
- While U were otherwise engaged, here's what I said about #drones a year ago (already!) http://bit.ly/1oDOW83 , #Mallarme, #Dice, #IoT
- Defence ministry to regulate use of drones on safety fears - Politics and policy - http://businessdailyafrica.com http://disq.us/8lu8w0
- E-commerce firm targets local market with drones delivery - Corporate News - http://businessdailyafrica.com http://disq.us/8kmwx8
- Conflict Economics: Gaza War Helps Market Drones http://www.bloomberg.com/video/israel-drones-gaza-conflict-helps-market-military-weapons-RxmkXR3OS6KGZN24rGQxDw.html … via @BloombergTV http://bloom.bg/1pQR2Sp
- U.S. fighters carry out new air strikes to protect stranded Yazidis http://dailym.ai/1oSiZtn via @MailOnline
- Drones from the deep: Pentagon develops ocean-floor attack robots - Washington Times: http://wtim.es/1i35zDb via @washtimes
- Game of drones: Why Google and Facebook are going head-to-head for control of the skies http://shar.es/Tvuuq via @sharethis
- Australia to buy giant surveillance drones http://disq.us/8hksw5
- @joshkariuki Drones exposed them. A robust UN force has driven them off & will keep them out as DRC gains internal strength & external clout
- How Drones Could Revolutionize Farming http://huff.to/1cJ52rr via @HuffPostBiz
- Drones Could Revolutionize Agriculture, Farmers Say http://huff.to/1cJ52rr via @HuffPostGreen
- Amazon drones are 'fantasy,' says eBay CEO | PCWorld http://www.pcworld.com/article/2070420/amazon-drones-are-fantasy-says-ebay-ceo.html … via @pcworld [Will drones deliver parcel bombs just as easily?]
- Drones? Pshaw. U.S. Navy Unveils Its Laser Weapon System By @addythebaddy http://www.fastcompany.com/3008034/tech-forecast/drones-pshaw-us-navy-unveils-its-laser-weapon-system … via @FastCompany
- Drones over there, total surveillance over here http://aje.me/ZcPTGl via @AJEnglish
- Drones Memo Not Shared With Senate Staffers: Dianne Feinstein http://huff.to/12wXUum via @HuffPostPol
- @Forbes Seasons/swarms of drones, the new locusts, in our long future. Their good 'side' will pale versus the harm/devastation they'll bring
- If Hezbolla has drones, such as was just shot down, Israel must worry if it has real defence v a nuclear-armed enemy http://huff.to/WEfgQw
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/drone-warfare-obama-counterterrorism … via @motherjones
Mauri Yambo
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